VietNamNet Bridge – Informatics and foreign language certificate
markets are mushrooming as certificate suppliers well understand the high
demand from school graduates who need more and more certificates to “beautify”
their CVs.

After making a phone call, having a meeting
with the seller and paying 200,000 dong, one can receive an informatics and a
foreign language certificate granted by the Science Technology Union for
Informatics Application (UIA).

Buy more and get promotions

Tien Phong’s reporter, who
acted as a recent university graduate, called T, a well known “broker” of the
certificate market and said he needed some certificates. T answered that if
buying both informatics and foreign language certificates, buyer would have to
pay 200,000 dong. If buying a foreign language certificate only, he would have
to pay 120,000 dong, and if buying an informatics certificate, he would have to
pay 80,000 dong. There was even a
special offer: Tien Phong’s reporter could enjoy a preferential price of
180,000 dong per couple of certificates (informatics and foreign language) if
he purchased three pairs or more.

In an effort to reassure the
buyer, T said that the certificates are granted by UIA, a well know institution
which has its headquarters in Hanoi.
When the reporter said he wanted the certificates granted by the Ministry of
Education and Training, T said she would only be able to provide the
certificates after 7-10 days, but the prices would be higher at 400,000 dong
per certificate.

The Tien Phong’s reporter
gave T two 3X4 portrait pictures and his identity card and waited. “No need to
worry about the certificates. They are real certificates. Your name will be
listed in the records of students, who took training courses at school. The
only difference is that you do not have to attend the courses and you do not
have to take exams,” T reassured the reporter.

T kept her words. On the
next day, she gave the reporter a certificate of informatics skills at B level
granted by UIA, for which the reporter had to pay 80,000 dong. The reporter
then had the certificate notarized and did not meet any obstacles when getting
the certificate notarized.

Purchasing certificates is better
than taking exams

When asked if there are many
students who seek to purchase certificates, T said: “A lot of people have the
demand. Especially, the demand increases sharply after Tet, when students are preparing
to finish university and are looking for jobs”.

Having realized the high
demand, more and more people have joined the ring of providing certificates.
Advertisement pieces have also been posted on Internet, the place where buyers
can most easily find the suppliers. Typing “Nhan lam chung chi tieng Anh, tin
hoc” (providing English and informatics certificates) on Google will provide
2.4 million results. Some online forums have pointed out that the market near Hanoi National
University can provide
certificates at the best prices, while buyers do not have to wait long to get
the certificates.

The demand for English and
informatics certificates is increasingly high on the market because the two
kinds of certificates are nearly compulsory for all candidates who apply for
jobs.

The service of providing
certificates has become so convenient that though many people have the required
skills and knowledge pass exams, they would rather buy certificates that attend
exams . The problem is that students have to go through many complicated procedures
to obtain a certificate granted by the local department of education or the Ministry
of Education and Training.

An officer of a foreign
language and informatics center in Hanoi
said that in order to get certificates, students will have to attend the exams
after they finish their training courses. If they want the certificate granted
by the Hanoi Education and Training Department, they have to pay 300,000 dong
as an exam fee. After that, they have to wait for exams and then wait for more two
weeks to get certificates. Meanwhile, people usually want to get certificates
as soon as possible and are not willing to wait.

H, a student of the Hanoi Industry
University related that
he has bought a certificate. “I did not want to sit the exams to get
certificates. The procedures were too complicated. Meanwhile, I needed the
certificates immediately to apply for jobs. The recruitment campaign would
finish before I could get the certificates,” he said.

Source: Tien phong